The Atlanta constitution. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1885-19??, 1887-09-13
GIVEN TO HOSPITALITY
90 was a Stranger and Ye Took
Me ln.'
DR.. TALMAGE'S SERMON YESTERDAY


''Given to Hospitality" and his discourse was
as follows:
There is danger that the multiplication of
large and commodious hotels in our towns and
oities and villages will utterly exterminate
that grace which Abraham exhibited when he
entertained the angels, and which Lot showed
when he watched for guests at the gate of the
CITY and which Christ recognized as a positive
requisite for entering heaven when he de-
Cleared; Il was stranger and ye took me in"
propose to speak this morning of the trials
and rewards of Christian hospitality. The first
trial often comes in the whim and eccentricity
!of the guest himself. There are
10 great many excellent people who
have protuberances of disposition
sand sharp edges of temperament, and unplia-
lbility of character, which make them posi-
give nuisance in any house where they stay.
On short acquaintance, they will begin to COM
nand the household affairs, order the employees
70 unusual service, keep unreasonable hours,
use narcotics in places offensive to sensitive
hostrils, put their feet at unusual elevations,
drop the ashes of their Havana on costly tap
estry, omen bureaus they ought never to touch,
and pry into things they ought never to see,
and become impervious to rousing bells, and
have all the peculiarities of the gormandizer
pr the dyspeptic, and make exca-
.Vations from poor dentistry with
unusual implements, and in thousand ways
atflict the household which proposes to take
care of them. Added to ALL they stay too
l{ong They have no idea when their welcome
As worn out, and they would be unmoved even
'by the blessing which my friend Gerritt Smith,
the philanthropist, asked one morning at has
breakfast table, on the day when he hoped
lthat the long protracted guests would depart
Saying: 30, Lord, bless this provision, and
our friends who leave us today" But nv
friends, there are aleviations to be put on their
side OF the scale. Perhaps they have
not had the same refining influ-
you have had. Perhaps they have inherited
eccentricities that they cannot help. Perhaps
1t is your duty, by example, to show them a
better way. Perhaps they are sent to be
trial for the development of your patience
Perhaps they were to be intended as an illus
&ration Of the opposite of what you are trying
to inculcate in the minds of your children
Perhaps 1T is to make your home the brighter
Ewhen they are gone. When our guests are
CHEEKY, and fascinating, and elegant, it is very
easy to entertain them; but when we find in
our guests that which is antagonistic to our
taste and sentiment, it is positive triumph
when we can obey the words of my text and
iDe given to hospitality"
Another trial i'll the using of this grace is in
Hhe toll and expense Of exercising it. In the
well regulated household things go smoothly
but now you have introduced q foreign ele-
Enent into the machinery, and though Won NAV
AtOutly declare that they must take things as
they find them, the Martha will break in. The
Nngovernable stove. The ruined dessert
The joint that proves to be unmasticatle
The delayed marketing. The perplexites of
a caterer. The difficulty of doing proper
work. and yet always being presentable
Though you may say there shall be no care or
anxiety, there will be care and there will be
anxiety. In 1894 the captain-general provid-
al L ,+o-t !
other things he had fountain in his garden
q fountain of strong drink. In it were four
hogsheads of brandy, eight hogsheads of
water, q, 900 lemons, thirteen hundredweight
OF Lisbon sugar, five pounds of grated nut
meg, 800 toasted biscuits and a boat built on
purpose was placed in the fountain, and a boy
slowed around it and filed the cups of the
people who came there to be sup
piled. Well, you say that was a luxur-
4ous entertainment. and of course the
man had no anxiety but I have to tell you,
shat though you had. or propose, an entertain
ment like that, you have anxiety. In that
svery thing comes the divine reward. We
s&ere born to serve; and When we serve others
/, sve serve God. The flush on that woman's
cheek, as she bends over the hot stove, is as
sacrcd in Gods sight as the flush of the cheek
EQf one who, on hot day. breaches the gospel.
sSSVe may serve God with plates, and cultry,
4nd broom, as certainly as we can serve him
with psalm-book and liturgy. Margaret
queen OF Norway, and Sweden, and Denmark.
hadssa royal cup of ten lips on which was re-
corded the names OF the guests who had
drank from his cup. And every Christian
woman has royal cup, on which are written
Rll the names of those who have ever been en-
Tertained by her in Christan51 style-names not
gut by human ingenuity, but written by the
hand of divine Jesus. But, my friends, you
Are not to toll unnecessarily. Though the fare
Be plain, cheerful presidency of the table, and
2leanlness of appointments will be good
enough for anybody that ever comes to your
house. John Howard was invited to
{he house of a nobleman. NILE said: II
will come on one condition, and that is
Shat you have nothing but potatoes on the
GABLE" The requisition was complied with.
Cyrus, king of Persia, under the same crcum-
Htances, prescribed that there must be nothing
put bread. OF course these were extremes,
put they are illustrations of the fact that more
HependS upon the banqueterS than upon the
banquet. want to lift this idea of Christian
Entertainment out of positive bondage into
RlOriouS Involvement Every effort YOU nut
Hortb, and every dollar you give to the enter
fainment of friend or foe, you give directly to
Christ. Suppose it were announced that tho
%ord Jesus Christ would come to this place this
week, what woman in this house would not
be glad to wash for Him, or spread for Him
bed, or bake bread for Him? There was one
bf old who washed for Him, drawing the water
from the well Of her own tears. He is coming.
He will be here tomorrow. "Inasmuch as We
pave done it to one Of the least of these, My
brethren, ye have done it to Me-" In picture
galleries we have often seen representations of
Walter Scott and his friends, or Washington
Irving with his associates but all those en-
cravings win fade ont, while through ever
casting ages, hanging luminous and conspicu-
pus, viii be the picture ofyou and your Christ
gan guests.
You see we have passed out from the trials
3nto the rewards OF Christian hospitality;
grand, glorious, and eternal. The first reward
of Christian hospitality is the Divine benedic-
Zion. When any one attends to this duty,
Gods blessing comes upon him, upon his com
panion, upon his children, upon his dining
hall, upon his parlor, upon his nursery. The
blessing comes in at tho front door, and the
back door, and down through the skyights
God draws long mark of credit for Services
Ifeceived. Christ said TO His disciples: Gle
Chat receivcth you, receiveth Me; and lie
Shat giveth cup Of cold water in the
name of disciple shall in no wise loose his
Reward" AS we have had so many things re-
CORDED against us in heaven, it will be "a salts
faction 30 have written on unfailing archives
The fact, that in the month of May, or June,
Ipf September, or December, 1887, we made
Che blissful mistake Of supposing that we
Syere entertaining weak men like ourselves,
fYhen, 10! they showed their pinions before
obey left; and we found out that they were
angels ulaWarcs.